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Following the positive development of Grameen Bank of Bangladesh and its success story, micro finance through self-help groups (SHGs) has been recognised as one of the effective tools of poverty alleviation in almost all the countries including India. In India also, several non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have come up with the Grameen Bank model with minor changes to suit the local conditions and factor endowments. Such a programme was taken up by Rashtriya Gramin Vikas Nidhi (RGVN) as a pilot project in 1995. RGVN is primarily an NGO support agency promoted by leading financial institutions like Industrial Finance Corporation of India, Industrial Development Bank of India and National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development. Because of the wider acceptance by the poor people, it has grown in strength over the years both in coverage and quantity keeping the quality as the same. The paper tries to evaluate the RGVN's Credit and Saving Programme (CSP) in Assam over the years. The specific objectives of...